#sol niger

First things first: the title. Splendor Solis literally means "The Splendor of the Sun" and refers to an omonymous alchemical text from the 16th century. I found out about it when I was researching the title of my upcoming Elucien longfic, which I eventually named Sol niger, "black sun". Since Splendor Solis is an illuminated manuscript, there's a handy little image of the black sun that suits this whole vibe just fine:

And also, you know, Day Court = sun. It's as simple as that.

Another Latin name in the story is Stella Maris, which is an epithet attributed to the Virgin Mary and means "Star of the Sea", referring to Her protection over fisherman and sailors.

(I'm pretty sure the church near the beach I'm writing this post from is dedicated to Maria Stella Maris, but I'm too lazy to check.)

In my fanon, Stella Maris is the name of the High Lord's palace in the capital of the Day Court. More on this in Sol niger — which, to be honest, could be said about the whole story.

Speaking of which, the reason why Lucien and Elain have a dog named Astra (derived from aster, "star" in Ancient Greek) will also be explained in Sol niger, as well as why Elain and Lucien had to go to the Day Court and how Eris finally came to be High Lord of Autumn.

Laoise — an Irish name pronounced "Lee-sha" — is, of course, the Lady of the Autumn Court. I chose Irish names for every unnamed Vanserra, since the Autumn Court is Irish/English-coded in my mind. Don't ask me why.

Splendor Solis is set, more or less, a decade after the events narrated in Sol niger. This timeline has allowed me to write about Elain and Lucien as an established couple, who have already overcome any and all major obstacles in their relationship and have, in one word, healed. Therefore, I think it's a fitting story for Day 7 of Elucien Week, even if it's more an introspective/worldbuilding piece more than something centered on Elucien themselves.

I put together every post I made about Sol niger under this link, if you're curious and would like to know more; I already had many occasion to talk about the Mediterranean elements (especially Italian, since I'm Italian myself) I decided to include in the story and use as basis for my worldbuilding.